U.S.-led coalition still hunting for Al-Baghdadi, other top IS leaders – Spokesman

The U.S.-led coalition fighting in Iraq and Syria is still hunting for the Islamic State terrorist group leader Abu-Bakr Al-Baghdadi, inspite of repeated reports that he has already been killed.

Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon told Sputnik: “we continue to go after these senior leaders and we continue to look for Al-Baghdadi, and if we knew where he was we would have our professionals head over and hit him right now,” Dillon said in a phone interview from Baghdad.

Baghdadi’s death has been reported numerous times in recent years, but terrorist leader re-emerged each time after such reports.

In June, the Russian Defense Ministry said that Baghdadi could have been killed as a result of a strike by the Russian Aerospace Forces on May 28 in the southern suburb of Raqqa.

In September 2017, an alleged audio recording of Baghdadi emerged, casting fresh doubt on whether the terrorist leader is currently dead or alive.

However, the U.S. State Department was unable to confirm the authenticity of the tape.

The U.S. government more than doubled, to 25 million dollars, its reward offered for information on the whereabouts of Al-Baghdadi, placing him in a category whose only other occupant is Ayman al-Zawahiri,
the leader of al-Qaeda.

Since an initial 10 million dollars was first offered in 2011 by the State Department-administered Rewards for
Justice programme, IS has seized control of large portions of Syria and Iraq and “gained the allegiance of jihadist groups and radicalized individuals around the world.

The last confirmed sighting of him was in the Iraqi city of Mosul in the summer of 2014, shortly after IS
militants occupied the city.

Since then, he has released several audiotapes exhorting his troops to fight on, and U.S. officials have variously indicated he is believed to be hiding in Mosul, or in the Islamic State-occupied city of Raqqa,
Syria.